[Source: RNZ]

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is defending his bushfire response, and suggesting media are to blame for only highlighting the way people have acted “hostile” towards him.

He told the ABC in a prickly interview that there was a myriad of responses people get in these environments and when the media is taken along, they will focus on some elements and they won’t focus on others.

Morrison said there’s a variety of responses you get in these events – people are very emotionally raw, people have lost everything and he obviously does not take that personally.

The Australian PM said the decision he takes to turn up, to show up and if people are upset, he will listen to that upset adding that if people are looking for comfort, he will provide that comfort and is been pleased to do so on so many occasions.

Morrison has also been criticised for going on holiday to Hawaii amid the devastation, and for his stance that climate change is not linked to the current raging fires.